Have You Met My Brother?[Comprehensive Martial Arts + Sword Three] Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Floating Corpses at Sea

The swaying, rocking motion.

The familiar movement made Yan Bugui realize he must be on a moored ship. The faint sound of crashing waves was a subtle presence in his ears, like a soothing lullaby.

A strange sense of exhaustion wrestled with the urge to wake up. Between sleep and consciousness, the memories before he passed out transformed into scattered pearls, popping up one after another in the depths of the swordsman’s mind—

The sky was bright and sunny, white clouds drifted lazily, and gulls soared freely where the sea met the horizon. The bustle of Xia Ke Island was as lively as ever. Although the turmoil of the Central Plains had spread to the East Sea years ago, the storm had fortunately subsided for the time being—at least for the common sea folk, life seemed to have changed in many ways, yet everything felt normal.

However…

“Brother! Calm down, both of you!”

Yan Bugui’s mood was far from as bright as the sky. He stared wide-eyed at the raging winds, giant waves, lightning, and thunder on the beach before him. The parrot flying beside him, flapping its wings, was also shouting hoarsely, “Stop fighting! Stop fighting! You won’t kill anyone like this—Ouch!”

A massive, snow-white sea eagle descended rapidly from high altitude, its wings spreading like a shadow covering the sky. While stirring up a hurricane, it didn’t forget to toss a small stone at the brightly colored parrot, whose feathers were a mix of emerald and orange, forcibly silencing the annoying bird.

The owner of the white-feathered sea eagle held a large parasol of white silk and silver ribs, floating gracefully in the air. A light veil hung halfway down the parasol, making his appearance and expression difficult to discern. Xie Donghai spoke with a voice as clear as a stream: “I was not the one who started the fight, and I haven’t even retaliated.” Undoubtedly, he was innocently stating that he had remained calm the entire time.

…You yourself haven’t retaliated, but your Xueling’s attacks haven’t stopped! Yan Bugui felt a lump in his throat. Just as he was about to say something to persuade the two to stop, Liu Yuan, dressed in a white robe and black inner garment with a fox fur draped over his shoulders, had already slashed out another wall of saber energy, preventing his blood relative from approaching. His handsome face was filled with fury—all directed at Xie Donghai.

Liu Yuan’s voice sounded almost like he was grinding his teeth: “I must have been blind to feel grateful toward a beast like you—you were like a father and brother to Xiaozhe, and yet you…”

Xie Donghai waved his hand, signaling the white-feathered sea eagle to fly high. He looked down at Yan Bugui and Liu Yuan, his tone steady, but the content of his words made veins pop out on the listeners’ foreheads: “Before you and Little Yan acknowledged each other as brothers, he and I were already lovers. We never hid this; you were simply slow to realize it. Furthermore… I never felt you had any ‘gratitude’ toward me.”

Boom—Xie Donghai was only halfway through his sentence when Liu Yuan’s long saber swung out. The immense pressure forced objects in the sky to plummet. Had the sea eagle Xueling not flown away in advance, it would have been forced to drop onto the beach.

Although Xie Donghai, who was within the attack range, fell from mid-air, it looked more like he did it intentionally. Without touching the ground, he dodged the spinning short saber like a phantom. The waves surging onto the beach seemed to embrace him, helping him quickly shift behind Liu Yuan.

“Enough! Brother Liu, I will give you an explanation after this!” Yan Bugui, unable to watch any longer, finally bypassed the wall of saber energy and flashed between the two, forcing Xie Donghai to halt his palm strike. He stood with his back to Liu Yuan and faced Xie Donghai, looking somewhat helpless. “Brother, you should also say less.”

“You still call him brother!” Liu Yuan, who had been kept in the dark for years and had only just accidentally discovered the romantic relationship between these two, was enraged again. Words about ethics, morality, and societal disapproval reached his lips, but he didn’t want to lecture Yan Bugui. He had already turned around, staring intently at Xie Donghai, gripping his long and short sabers tightly, looking ready to devour someone.

Xie Donghai leisurely opened the large parasol he had closed. Resting the handle on his shoulder, he said slowly, “Little Yan has called me brother for over twenty years. It’s normal that he can’t change the address—besides, a biological brother is a brother, and a lover is a brother. What’s the problem? Liu Yuan, you are already past thirty, why are you still acting like a child vying for your younger brother’s attention?”

Yan Bugui vaguely guessed that the core issue Liu Yuan was struggling with was not what Xie Donghai implied, and these words would undoubtedly only provoke the former further. Yan Bugui couldn’t help but gasp—sure enough, the next moment, Liu Yuan, whom he had shielded, turned away from him with a dark expression. His long and short sabers simultaneously struck at Xie Donghai, who had suddenly floated over the sea!

Xie Donghai stood on the waves, using the parasol as a shield. His movements were graceful and hard to track, clearly intending to lure the other into the sea. The high-flying sea eagle also descended again, cooperating with its master to whip up waterspouts. Liu Yuan was naturally unwilling to show weakness. While flipping to avoid the tracking waterspouts, his sheathed long saber continuously slashed out several bursts of saber energy, which served both as offense and interception, facilitating his own movement.

Seeing the two start fighting again, and noticing that they were intentionally or unintentionally shifting their battleground to avoid him, Yan Bugui tightened his grip on his saber. The brightly feathered parrot casually flew back to his side and chirped, “Can you tolerate this? I certainly can’t.”

“Little Yu, shut up.” Yan Bugui didn’t spare a glance for the parrot, whose full name was Bai Renyu. His gaze was fixed on his two brothers, who were chasing, dodging, and fighting fiercely.

Suddenly, his eyes narrowed. He drew his horizontal saber. With a hum, a crescent-shaped burst of saber energy rapidly advanced along the sea surface, cutting a shallow channel through the water and forcing the two combatants to avoid it. Yan Bugui followed the saber energy to the scene, first knocking the large parasol out of the nearest Xie Donghai’s hand, then turning around to “gift” Liu Yuan, who intended to seize the opportunity to attack, a body slam.

Xie Donghai seemed to smile, a hint of amusement lingering in the corner of his eyes, but his strike was decisive—he didn’t need to pick up his parasol; the waves and the sea eagle were his best helpers. The crashing waves and the eagle’s cry sounded together. Liu Yuan, who had been slammed back onto the sand, frowned heavily. He flipped over to avoid the waves while throwing his short saber to force back the diving sea eagle. He then charged toward Xie Donghai again!

How chaotic the subsequent melee between the three of them was, Yan Bugui vaguely couldn’t recall—Xie Donghai and the sea eagle’s waterspouts, Liu Yuan’s purple lightning saber energy, and his own desolate saber light mixed into a single mess.

In the final memory, the previously clear sky suddenly became overcast with dark clouds. The calm sea surface abruptly collapsed into a pitch-black abyss with extremely strong suction. He only heard Xie Donghai exclaim in astonishment, “Gui Xu Eye?” before seeing all of them sucked into it, plunging into darkness…

.

“You’re awake!”

Song Tian’er, who wore her hair in two long braids, cried out in surprise and delight, immediately drawing the attention of Chu Liuxiang and his two companions, who were discussing the floating corpses at sea.

Not long ago, their ship was drifting peacefully when they suddenly saw anomalies on the sea surface. They then began pulling up corpse after corpse, all looking terrifying and each belonging to a highly prominent figure. They wondered why these masters from all corners of the world had fought each other, ultimately ending up as floating corpses at sea.

After consecutively retrieving four male corpses, Chu Liuxiang initially thought they might find a disciple of the Divine Water Palace next, but unexpectedly, it was another man—and more importantly, he was alive, merely unconscious for some unknown reason.

This living person they rescued was quite strange. He looked rather young, perhaps in his early twenties, with a handsome and refined appearance that girls would find appealing. His clothing was half black, half white, mixed with some blue, adorned with patterns like feathers and clouds. A jade pendant of excellent quality hung from his waist…

The most striking thing was that the corpses that had been floating at sea for a long time, just like him, were all soaking wet. Yet, when this man was brought onto the deck, he was completely dry, as if not a drop of water had touched him.

“Is he wearing the legendary Jiao Silk that doesn’t get wet in water?” Song Tian’er bravely squatted down and touched the drapery behind his shoulder. She then looked at the man’s face and exclaimed in surprise, calling out to the others, “Look, does he have fish scales on his face? Huh? Why are they gone now?”

“Perhaps it’s some kind of tattoo that appears when wet…” Li Hongxiu replied softly. She was currently observing his attire closely, from his unique clothing style to the blue horizontal saber he still gripped tightly in his hand, even in his unconscious state. Unfortunately, no matter how hard she pondered, she couldn’t link him to any aristocratic family, sect disciple, or famous wandering martial artist.

However, precisely because of this, she noticed the faint, sea-blue, fish-scale-like patterns beneath his right eye. They quickly disappeared, though, and if she hadn’t been staring, she might have thought she was seeing things.

“Still can’t figure out his origin?” Chu Liuxiang asked.

Li Hongxiu frowned slightly and shook her head: “I can’t even identify the material of his clothes. I can only tell that the few pom-pom decorations hanging from his horizontal saber must be woven from the softest tufts of fur from a Northern White Fox. If such a person had appeared in the martial world, I would definitely know about it.”

“Could he be a young hero from some reclusive sect, just making his debut?” Su Rongrong had just examined him and confirmed he was merely unconscious, with no obvious external or internal injuries. She gently told Chu Liuxiang that even without any stimulation, he would likely wake up soon.

“I…” Chu Liuxiang was about to say something when he saw more debris floating on the sea. He immediately approached the ship’s rail and retrieved the female corpse he had previously assumed would appear.

He lined up the five corpses—four men and one woman—on one side. After confirming that the female corpse was likely a Divine Water Palace disciple, he covered them with white cloth. These people looked exactly like they had killed each other, resulting in mutual death. In that case, the mysterious man, the only living person holding a weapon, whose origins even Li Hongxiu couldn’t discern, seemed highly suspicious.

Song Tian’er had turned her back to the corpses when Chu Liuxiang went to retrieve them, focusing instead on examining the young man. When she saw the eyeballs beneath his eyelids move, she immediately shouted out. Chu Liuxiang was contemplating whether to search the sea for more potential clues when he heard Song Tian’er’s voice. He and his two confidantes immediately gathered around.

So, when Yan Bugui heard a soft female voice near his ear and suddenly opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was that he was surrounded by three women and one man—

The three women were all wearing long robes—one plain, one vibrant red, and one goose yellow—all in loose and comfortable styles, and each was a beauty in her own right. As for the man, he had thick eyebrows, bright eyes, a prominent nose, and thin lips. When expressionless, he would appear cold, but the smile playing on his lips now gave him a warm, spring-like gentleness.

It was Chu Liuxiang who first broke the silence. He asked, “May I ask the young hero’s name? How do you feel now? Do you remember what happened before you lost consciousness?”